Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Red Pill Reality Dispelling Blue Pill Delusions: Veganism

This is a portrait of the man who is responsible for much of the mythology, shibboleths and lies about diet and human nutrition that is now the basis of much of the Government's "guidelines" and the recent epidemic of ill health and malnutrition that plagues Western Civilization.

He is John Harvey Kellog. He was a seventh day Adventist and one of the founding Father's of American militant veganism. This man promoted some of the myths surrounding animal foods that still are repeated to this day. Ideas like meat impacts the colon and putrifies in your gut, that meat eating and saturated fats are the causes of so many diseases today - he was a militant vegan who made it his life's goal to promote veganism to the masses as the key to long, healthy living.

He is almost solely responsible for changing the typical American breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs to his most famous invention: grain-based breakfast cereal.

What many modern day vegans do not realize is that they are the ideological heirs of Kellog. None of his memes and shibboleths that he spread to market his cereal as a more 'healthy' breakfast was ever founded on scientifically proven experiments. He simply promoted his Seventh-Day Adventist dietary proscriptions to the masses (and for his cereal companies enormous profit).

One of the paleo-blogs I regularly read, Free the Animal, has a guest post up today, written by a former long time vegan and animal rights activist, Lorette Luzajec, entitled Life and Death and the Garden of Eden in which she expounds further on exactly how and why Kellog's vegetarian myths that have become largely conventional wisdom are based nothing more than on his faith that meat eating was the primary driver of the sexual sin of "lust" and how that legacy is unknowingly carried on today by the modern day vegan and animal rights movements.

We’ve been told so frequently that vegetarians are healthier and live longer than shameless carnivores that even Paleo diet proponents may be surprised by new headlines refuting this common “wisdom.” Because we’ve had to dig deeply for truth under the monocrop and animal liberation propaganda. When Sally Fallon suggested that saturated fat is “good for you,” her outrageous assertions spawned websites bickering about how some people also think the world is flat. The idea that shunning animal foods is the ticket to paradise is widespread today. It is considered common knowledge that vegetarians enjoy better health benefits, a miraculous life span, and shining skin, along with a squeaky clean conscience. But the truth is that behind all these glowing good intentions 0and nutrition “facts” is that vegetarianism is not a diet- it is a fundamentalist religion.

This is exactly the kind of dietary wisdom I thought I "knew" years before I discovered the Weston Price Foundation's website. It was also the diet I thought was most healthful, and I tried following as much as possible. It took years of continuous weight gain and a host of mild health afflictions for me to finally question my dietary "knowledge."

Now I know the reality - there are a whole host of industries, corporations and government agencies in bed with those corporate entities, that all profit enormously off of the status quo of nutritional disinformation started by the likes of Kellog.

When the 1950s Lipids Hypothesis guessed that animal fat in the western diet was responsible for our growing rates of death and disease, it was good news for the vegetable oil industries to glom onto. Where for millennia, we had used lard and butter, now we used corn and soy oils. That these same oils and white sugar and flour might be the guilty party in the deadly western diet wasn’t given the time of day. Forever after, animal fat was vilified as a vicious foe.

Some of you may wonder why I haven't had a new blog posting in over a week. For the sake of maintaining some semblance of internet anonymity, let's just say I've been in the hospital for an extended visit. (For anyone that cares, It wasn't myself but a family member that was hospitalized. All is well now.)

While suffering in boredom in a hospital bed, I found the hospitals own "video on demand" channel. I dialed up the "Diet and Nutrition" video.

I think it's no mystery, the healthcare "industry" in this country profits immensely from the continued promulgation of the kind of dietary propaganda started by the likes of Kellog. It was all there..avoid eating fats and meats. If you MUST eat meat, make sure it's lean, with all the fat trimmed off. Substitute plant based fats in place of animal fats - like margarine instead of butter, corn and soy oil instead of lard, etc. Healthy grains instead of meat. Exercise more, eat less calories. And all of these ideas were reinforced by the hospital cafeteria and the crap they dare call "food" that I found myself having to eat because I simply didn't have the time or opportunity to leave the hospital for some real food.

It's rather ironic, that the three things I consider the most essential for a sick or injured human being needs to aid his or her recovery - good sleep, good food, and intervals of fresh air and sunshine - are all bereft in the hospital environment.

I hope that the day I die, it is NOT in the sterile, climate controlled, politically correct institution of an American hospital, eating their crappy "food" and kept from the sun and a truly restful sleep.

But I digress. Back to Luzajic's excellent treatise:

But before that, the monocrop monolith took our meat away for moral motivations, not merely monetary ones. In the 1800s, Doctors Graham and Kellogg came onto the scene, pushing their corn and wheat fibre snake oil. Avoiding constipation with fibre, you see, would keep us pure and save us from our sins. Meat had to be avoided at all costs, not because of compassion for our fuzzy friends, but because it incited lust. Leo Tolstoy’s “peaceful” lifestyle was mainly about how meat inflamed lust. Early waves of western vegetarianism were totally based on the religious ideal of avoiding meat to avoid sexuality. (Yes, monastic practices avoid meat to avoid killing, but also to make celibacy easier. Monks knew that soy had a feminizing effect on their manhood.) Incidentally, the infantile obsession that some vegetarians have with “impacted fecal matter” clogging colons everywhere comes from these ancient cereal quacks. Kellogg wrote extensively about how meat clumped into the colon and rectum and pushed onto the sex organs, pressuring them into lust. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. There is zero truth behind this “condition.” It doesn’t exist.

But as the aftermath of this obsession with sex and feces was a fortune in the cereal markets, and as moralizing brought about vast gains in the vegetable oil industry, the world over came to believe that a vegetarian diet was the key to eternal youth and happiness. This is precisely in line with fundamentalist religions.

The more I read vegan websites and messageboards, the more I see the truth of what Luzajic states: veganism is a fundamentalist ideology, that ignores any facts that contradict the tenets of their faith, or explain away or rationalize inconsistencies so as to avoid dealing with cognitive dissonance.

For myself, the cognitive dissonance was what eventually lead to quitting the blue pill of conventional dietary wisdom cold turkey. Now we know, meat is not murder...it is life sustaining and healing!

It’s turning out that soy protein is deficient in certain animo acids and high in estrogenic compounds, wreaking havoc on human testosterone levels. Turns out meat is loaded with antioxidants, and the strongest antioxidants are not found in plants, but in our own bodies- and they are nourished with, guess what, the amino acids in meat. Turns out that vitamin B12 is one of our most potent protectors from coronary disease. That’s the vitamin found largely in animal foods.

It is reprehensible to withhold knowledge or misguide people for financial gain or an “ethical” agenda. Since B12 was the “only” nutrient found in meat that could not be obtained from plant foods, its importance was greatly minimized in vegetarian literature. Gurus of “compassion” like John Robbins went so far as to instruct followers not to worry about it. But even the China Study’s Dr. Colin Campbell says he takes supplements.

While news about disease caused by the absence of dietary B12 is now finally reaching people, the truth that meat contains a whole host of nutrients not found in plants is still suppressed. Vitamin D, Vitamin A, zinc, iron, chromium, DHA, cholesterol, saturated fat, carnitine….Since some of these nutrients are “technically” found in plants, idealists can fool the populace. Zinc is one example. This extremely important nutrient can certainly be obtained from vegetables. You need to eat hundreds of servings a day. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient, but idealists got rid of the problematic absence in plant foods by declaring it a disease monger.

Yes, our greatest hope of longevity and vibrant health is meat. Cutting modern plant foods out of our diet- grains, sugars, processed foods, vegetable oils- means our antioxidants don’t have as much work to do. Filling up on meat, fish, eggs, and fresh veggies means living longer.

...

Plant eaters and carnivores alike may be surprised to discover that many “aging” processes are nothing more than physical damage caused by carbohydrates. With all the talk about antioxidants, we know that much aging is the result of oxidative stress. The newest darling of discovery is carnosine, and the “carn” part is correct- only carnivores, or meat eaters, get it. What is it? Not to be confused with carnitine, another good friend, it is a dipeptide of the amino acids beta-alanine and histidine, found concentrated in muscle and brain tissue. It occurs in our own bodies, and diminishes with age, oxidative stress, etc. We can consume it in our diet, through animal foods.

It is proven to be a high performing antioxidant. It is an antiglycator- those familiar with words like “glycogen” and so forth will recognize the “glyc” and the “anti” from which you can surmise that it “gets rid of sugar.” Well, yes. It gets rid of sugar damage- helping to prevent and repair glycation and glycosylation. Those are fancy words, loosely referring to sugar aldehydes reacting with the amino acids on the protein molecule. Picture, more simply, what happens when you cut fruit open and it goes yellow. Glycation is one of the primary mechanisms for wrinkles!!!!!

Animal foods are the only sources of this nutrient, and this nutrient is absolutely vital in aging gracefully and avoiding cancer, diabetes, brain deterioration and immunity problems. So once again I must ask why we are always told to avoid or cut down on our meat intake and eat a plant based diet. I must ask why the truth is suppressed, twisted, or outright denied.

Vegetarianism is completely foreign to the human diet. The only vegetarian societies were meat-free for religious reasons. Vegetarianism is, and always has been, about religion, one that must not be imposed on anyone unless they come to it of their own free will, in full knowledge of their true dietary heritage. Religion has often been about denying the body and sacrificing its needs and lusts. It has often been about controlling the sex lives of its followers. Fasting, flagellation, sexual “purity” and ascetic denial are behind many faith practices. They are behind the agenda of early vegetarian proponents like Tolstoy and Kellogg, who were both obsessed with sex.

But the life of a monk is for a contemplative, not for a layman. And packaging idealism as nutritional science is reprehensible. Some of us see a simple spirituality in accepting our full humanity rather than denying it. Certainly spiritual principles call for truth, not lies. Eating meat is no more immoral for me than it is for a cat- since all claims to the contrary, this IS the way I was “designed.”

Life feeds on life.

Incidentally, Lujavic's concluding paragraph is a core tenet of my own beliefs, and precisely why I hunt...why I kill animals, butcher, cook and eat them - it is precisely because I have a profound respect for the cycle of life, for which I consciously choose to participate in.

It is absolutely moral to feed ourselves and our families on the food nature made for us. Far from being vicious and bloodthirsty, it shows a profound respect for nature unencumbered by naïve fantasy. It shows a respect for the circle of life and death, for the sacrifice another makes to nourish me fully and keep me alive. Amen.

17 comments:

Wow, thank you very much for that. Thanks to you, I've had Free The Animal in my favorites for a couple months now (thinking about linking it on my blog, but... blog's kinda on hiatus, so meh).

I have a question though. I've been avoiding sodas and sweet things and since my family doesn't usually buy meat all that often, I've been try to go at it with eggs. Are store-bought eggs a good source of food?

This is patent nonsense. I have been. Vegi/Vegan for 15 years. Quit projecting you vapid spam eating bullshit! Meat eating is a cult. It is heavily subsidized, by the government and it is not sustainable in the long term nor is it possible for everyone on earth to eat meat. 6-7 Billion people cannot live on it. If someone doesn't eat meat they are put down and food costs lot more because of wasteful spending on the enviornmentally destructive feedlots that again, is heavily subsidized. Not only that, but meat has zero antioxidents. No fiber. Just a lot of protein that must be broken dpwn into amino acids by the body causing loss of enzymes. You are an idiot and will be further treated like one for the laughably moronic article, spam boy...lol...

Hey, vegan anon, there's so much you got wrong so I'll just pick out one point and stick with it:

The world's largest food company is Nestlé, who specialise in cereals, and the second largest is Monasto, which specialises in soy and seed production. Soy production is the largest and most subsidized food manufacture in the entire world. Monasto also makes heavy use of genetic modification in their products.

It is the vegetarian diet that dominates the food industry and peddles out propaganda about how 'good for you' it is because plants are cheaper to make than animals.

Did you know anon that most soy grown is fed to cows? I don't like soy or gluten. I don't eat cereal. Meat eating is tax payer subsidized and once cheap oil is gone you idiots will be meatless! Haha! The jokes on you meat eaters! Few of you even know what the livestock you eat has been pumped with just to keep it alive! Fuckwits!

Vegan Anon - You assume that the omnivores with whom you are arguing primarily consumer grocery store meat. If you read what Dave and others write, you'll find that we actually seek out animals that weren't raised and slaughtered in factory farms and instead go for animals we buy directly from the small rancher who pasture raises his beef without antibiotics, hormones, etc., pork from a similar setting, true free range chickens, etc. When the monetary system collapses, we'll still have access to our preferred diets and, since trucking won't be a viable option, so will you.

LOL - Don't you love the combative, angry Vegan, demonstrating exactly what the article pointed out in the first place regarding militant extremism!

Fact is, I'm even more opposed to feedlot/soy/corn fed beef than your crazy, malnourished vegan...because it's environmentally destructive, makes meat cheap, less nutritious, and provides a red herring for useful idiots and vegan psychos to point the finger at and tell everyone else they HAVE to quit eating meat FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

I just bought 10 lbs. of 100% Grassfed buffalo from Oz, and 5 lbs. of Porterhouse from pastured beef from Hana, Maui.

I do put my money where my mouth is...I avoid feedlot animal food as much as possible.

Amateur Strategist...the best eggs would be from free range chickens. Regular store bought eggs are from battery pens with hens debeaked and fed soy.

That being said, you'd still be better off with store bought eggs versus eating carbs and sugars.

I know what you mean. Free range are probably a little more expensive, but they also contain (among other things) a lot more Omega-3 than cage-laid eggs. Your body needs Omega-3, so you pretty much have three choices:

"Kellogg made sure that the bowel of each and every patient was plied with water, from above and below. His favorite device was an enema machine that could rapidly instill several gallons of water in a series of enemas. Every water enema was followed by a pint of yogurt — half was eaten, the other half was administered by enema, “thus planting the protective germs where they are most needed and may render most effective service." The yogurt served to replace the intestinal flora of the bowel, creating what Kellogg claimed was a squeaky-clean intestine.[6]

Kellogg believed that most disease is alleviated by a change in intestinal flora; that bacteria in the intestines can either help or hinder the body; that pathogenic bacteria produce toxins during the digestion of protein that poison the blood; that a poor diet favors harmful bacteria that can then infect other tissues in the body; that the intestinal flora is changed by diet and is generally changed for the better by a well-balanced vegetarian diet favoring low-protein, laxative, and high-fiber foods; and that this natural change in flora could be sped by enemas seeded with favorable bacteria, or by various regimens of specific foods designed to heal specific ailments.

Kellogg was a skilled surgeon, who often donated his services to indigent patients at his clinic.[7] Although generally against unnecessary surgery to treat diseases,[8][9][dead link] he did advocate circumcision, allegedly to prevent masturbation."

The guy was a certifiable loon - yogurt enemas?!? Circumcizion prevents masturbation?!? Meat builds up in the colon and rectum and causes lust?!? Riight... But America rewards lunacy, and so Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Special K, etc., are a billion-dollar industry today.

(Kellogg reminds me of Welch, another nutbar fanatic, who also nevertheless bequeathed a best-selling food product to the world, Welch's Pasteurized Grape Juice, which admittedly is a tasty grape juice, but alas, it has come to almost completely supplant wine in communion services in Protestant churches, all over the world; and Welch used his power and influence to promote Prohibitionism. Thanks Welch! Damned teetotalling fanatic...)

Will already hit the disturbing truth of Kellogg starting the near-ritualistic circumcision of all american boys, so I'll hit a different factoid. Grains are massively high in Omega-6 fatty-acids, which tell the body to slow down and store fat for the coming winter, because grains usually showed up in the Fall. Omega-3's tell the body to jump up like a humming-bird and get to work, and they have to fight against omega-6 for the privilege. The only way to get omega-3 is to eat meat that has been fed on GREENS. We can't digest it ourselves, not in the amount we need, and so require an intermediary to digest it for us. Grazing animals are that intermediary. Unfortunately, most animals, even free-range, are fattened before market with grains, knocking out the omega-3's for 6's. This is one of the reasons venison is considered the most nutritional meat in the U.S.